Duality: Vol 1, Melancholia (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (15 page)

My phone beeped.  I pulled it out of my purse while pushing through the doors.  A text from my father flashed on the screen.

Where are you?  You should have been home by now.

I sighed, knowing what this meant.  If I didn’t get home right away, my dad was going to call the police.  It was beyond humiliating when he did that.  I could feel myself getting angry at the thought of him messing up my first day of a new school like that.  He had a tracker on my phone, and he could find me with it using the internet.  I’d left my cell behind once to thwart his efforts and he’d nearly had a coronary.  I decided that it wasn’t worth the moment of freedom I’d enjoyed, and had never done that again.  The last thing I needed to do was give him an excuse to cut me off from the world.  I knew it’s what he really wanted to do.

I texted him back, copying my mom on the message.  They didn’t always talk to each other about what they were doing with me and sometimes they got jealous of each other if I paid more attention to one of them.

On my way.  See you in fifteen
.

He responded immediately.

Fifteen minutes.  No later
.

I looked at the time on my phone.  It was almost five o’clock.  I rushed from the sidewalk over to Kootch’s car, waiting for him to open the door so I could get inside.  I was just about to tell everyone that I needed to go home right away when Jasmine spoke up from outside the door.

“Uh-oh.  Kootch.  Did you see this?”

I walked around the vehicle to stand near her, just as Kootch started swearing.

“Goddamn it!  What the hell?!  A flat?  Are you kidding me?”

I stared at the tiny tire whose rim was resting on the surface of the asphalt.  “Oh, geez.  That sucks.”  My heart skipped a beat as I realized how
much
it really sucked.  I was going to be late.  My dad would call the cops.  He always managed to get them immediately mobilized, too.  There was never any of that ‘she has to be gone for twenty-four hours before we do anything’ nonsense when my dad was in charge of the search party.

“Oh, no,” I said, staring at the tire and then my phone, imagining the humiliation and awfulness of police cars zooming into the McDonald’s parking lot.  Maybe they’d even mess with my friends; it wouldn’t be the first time.

“Sucks,” said Jasmine, looking at it with me.  “You going to get in trouble?”

“Uh, yeah.  Like major trouble.  My dad says I have to be home in fifteen minutes.”

Kootch was at the trunk, banging around inside.  “What the hell?  How can I get a flat tire parked in the lot, huh?  Someone tell me that?  That’s bullshit.  I’ll bet someone did this to me.”

“What’s wrong?  Got a problem?” asked Brody, coming up behind Kootch and standing near the back of the Gremlin.

“Yeah, I got a fucking problem.  Someone flattened my tire.”

Brody frowned and walked around the car until he found the issue.  “Oh, man.”  He bent down and touched the edges of it.  “I don’t see any holes.  I don’t think anyone slashed it or anything.”

“Whatever.  They’re just a couple years old.”

“Maybe you picked up a nail.”  Brody stood and grinned at me.  “I guess you need a ride now, huh?”

I grimaced, not able to bring myself to completely smile.  I felt like I was abandoning my friends, but I really couldn’t make my dad wait.  He’d see a request to stay out later as a trick.  And if I stayed here, he’s show up and make a scene.  I didn’t want him identifying any of my friends; he’d make it his personal business to keep me as far away from them as possible.

“I kind of do,” I said.  I looked at Jasmine.  “I’m so sorry.  I don’t want to leave you guys here, but if I’m late I’ll get seriously grounded.”

“Sounds like your parents suck donkey kong,” she said simply.

“Yes.  They really do.  Big donkey kong.”  I stepped over and gave her a hug.

She patted me on the back but not very enthusiastically.

“Thanks for inviting me along,” I said, pulling away, wondering if I was losing the first friend I’d had in a long time for being a freak with messed up parents.

“I need a ride too,” said Malcolm from behind us.

“No room,” said Brody, pressing a button on his car and opening the locks.  “Sorry, bud.”

Derek stood off to the side, texting into his phone rapidly, his fingers flying over the keys.

“I can’t go unless you give him a ride too,” I said quickly, before I could talk myself out of it.  I held my breath as I waited for Brody’s answer.

Malcolm raised an eyebrow at me but didn’t say anything.

“I don’t have room,” said Brody, sounding irritated.  “The back is too small, and it’s full of my football shit.”

“What about me?” asked Derek, laughing in a confused way, his fingers frozen in mid-text.

“You stay here, and I’ll come back and get you.”

“No way, man.  I’ll ride in the front with her.  We’ll squeeze in.”

“No,” I said, letting my breath out in a rush. “I’ll do that with Malcolm, but not Derek.  We both have to get home or we’ll get in trouble.”  I reached out and touched Brody’s arm.  “Please?”

The angry lines on his face smoothed out and he smiled lazily.  “Yeah.  Okay.”

“No.  Fuck that,” said Derek.  “Take the football shit out and put it in the POS.”  Derek was pointing at the Gremlin.

“Hey, watch what you’re calling my car!”  Kootch clenched his fists, flexing his arm muscles as they hung at his sides.

Jasmine walked over and stood in between Kootch and Brody, addressing Brody.  “I’m going to stay here with Kootch.  Put your crap in his car and come back and get it later.  We’ll put the spare on while you’re gone.  If you’re not back by the time we’re done, you’ll either have to come get it at his house or at school Monday.”

“I need it for tomorrow, so give me your address.”  Brody held out his phone, sounding defeated.

Kootch took Brody’s cell and typed the information in.  “Here.  Don’t come late,” he grumbled, turning back to the hatch of the car so he could dig around some more.  A few seconds later he was trying to pull out a tiny spare tire.

Malcolm and I stood off to the side as Derek and Brody made quick work of getting football pads, a beat-up helmet, a bag of balls, uniform parts, and some shoes into the other car.  The smell that wafted over as the stuff went by was not pleasant.  It reminded me of a combination of sweat, metal, and cat pee.

“Alright, climb in,” said Brody.

Derek finished off a text and put his phone in his pocket, climbing into the back seat behind Brody’s spot.

Malcolm and I exchanged a look.  I was so glad he’d volunteered to go with me, but I couldn’t figure out why he’d done it.  Maybe he had parents like mine who were overprotective, or maybe he just didn’t want to hang out with Kootch anymore.

“You okay with this?” he asked in a low tone as we walked over to the passenger side of the car.

I nodded.  “Yeah.  I just really need to get home.”

I waited for Malcolm to get in and sit next to Derek.  Once he was settled, I pushed the front seat back into position so I could get into the front passenger spot.  As I eased myself down into the low seat, the scent of leather and men’s cologne went up into my nose.  It was nice, but I preferred how Malcolm smelled.  The memory of it made me smile.

Brody was looking at me, grinning again with those perfectly straight white teeth of his.  “So … where am I going?”

“Highlands,” I said.

“I live just past there,” said Malcolm.

“I’ll drop you off first,” Brody said, looking into the mirror at Malcolm.

I glanced at my phone. 
Five oh six. 
The panic rose.  “Um, I hate to be a big pain in the butt, but I need to be home no later than five fifteen.  Can you drop me off first?”

Brody patted me on the leg.  “Don’t you worry.  You’ll be fine.”

I didn’t know what he meant by that, but he was in the driver’s seat and I didn’t want to come off as a freak in the middle of a demented panic attack.  I looked down at my phone again, trying to calculate exactly how late I was going to be.  Every minute mattered to my parents.

“Just drop us both at her house.  I’ll walk the rest of the way,” said Malcolm.

“Fine,” said Brody, not sounding very happy about the idea.  His grin completely disappeared.  “I gotta get back to my gear anyway.”

We were several blocks away from the restaurant and in a residential district when Brody slowed down at a four-way stop, looking left and right.  He was just pushing on the accelerator to move us into the intersection when a speeding car came out of nowhere and got there first.

A flash of red caught my eye and I screamed, bracing my hands against the dashboard for impact.

Chapter Fifteen: Malcolm

THE CAR CAME AT US from the left.  Maybe I’m nuts, but I could have sworn it accelerated when we started moving forward past the stop sign.  It should have been slowing down.  That driver had a stop sign too, just like us.

“Gaaarrrben!” I yelled, throwing my arms out, my brain and mouth apparently once again unable to coordinate with each other and form an actual word in the middle of a panicked moment.  One of my hands smacked Derek in the head and the other hit the side of the car.

The red car smashed into the front left quarter panel of the Porsche, sending us spinning.  My body jerked sharply to the side and slammed into the door, and then the world turned into a blur.

Everyone was screaming, but the voice I heard above all the others was Rae’s.  I had a sudden, strong desire to stop time and pluck her out of the fray so I could set her gently down on the nearby sidewalk, like some kind of superhero in tights and a cape.  It’s possible I hit my head on the interior of the car during the accident.

When the car finally came to rest, it was pointing a little to the left of where it had started.  We had done a three-quarter turn, but it sure felt like more than that.  I was queasy and had a headache.  It felt like a tiny knife was stabbing me in the temple.

Just as I was thinking that and picturing a little man poking me in the side of my head with a tiny knife, Rae reached up and rubbed her left temple with her finger.  I had the irrational thought that my pain was causing her to have it too.  That would be a whole new layer of awful to add to my already eight-tier cake of a shit life.

“Headache?” I asked her.  It was stupid, I know.  Here we were just going through a car accident and that’s the best I could come up with.  This is what comes of avoiding girls for seventeen years - zero skills.  None.

“Yeah,” she whispered.  It’s like someone’s sticking a needle in my brain.

“Me too,” I said, rubbing mine now too, wondering if it would work to ease the pain.  It didn’t.  I stopped five seconds after starting because it was making it worse.

Brody either finally realized what had happened or had just recovered his voice.   He roared in anger.  “Errrrraaawwww, what the fuuuuck?!”  He pushed his door open and stumbled out of the car.  “You are so dead, man!  Dead!”  He took off towards the red Toyota that had steam coming from under its hood.  His gait was a little off-kilter.

Derek shoved me in the shoulder.  “Get out!  Hurry up before he does something stupid!”

Rae beat us to it, jumping out of the car on her side.  I watched her through the windshield, rushing over and putting her hand on Brody’s arm.

Reaching forward and scrambling around with my hand, I finally found the lever that would release the seat-catch and let me out of the back.  On my way out, Derek pushed me so hard I almost fell flat on my face on the street.  Three stumbling steps got me to the grass so I could fall there instead.  I rolled over onto my side.  “What the hell, Derek?!”

He didn’t even acknowledge me.  He was already out and striding over to Brody, stopping on his left side, his hand on his friend’s shoulder to stop him from going forward while he spoke.  I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

Rae lifted her hand from Brody’s arm and stepped around behind him, running over on her toes toward me.  Her hair was a mess, flying around her head in a tangle.

“Are you okay?”  She dropped to her knees right next to my face as I was rolling over onto my back.  She hurriedly tucked two clumps of hair behind her ears.

It was embarrassing to have her all worried over me when the only thing wrong with me was Derek’s enthusiasm over getting to his friend.  The headache was still there, but it wasn’t a migraine or anything.

“I’m fine.  Just fell getting out.”

“Derek mowed you over, I saw it.  I thought he was nicer than Brody, but I’ve changed my mind.”  She turned her head and looked at him for a second.  When she was facing me again, she had a frown on her face.

“Don’t hate on Derek for that.  He just wanted to stop Brody from flying off the handle.”

Rae stood and offered me her hand.  “Come on.  Let’s go.  I have to start walking or my parents are going to flip out completely.”

“We’ll never make it in time,” I said, taking her hand.

I swear I felt something weird when our fingers touched.  Gritting my teeth, I pulled on the hand she offered and stood, releasing her as soon as I had my balance.  I wiped both palms off on my pants, trying to clear them of the weird tingling sensation that lingered.

Her mouth turned down at the corners as soon as our contact stopped.  It gave me a weird thrill to see a person smile when they touched me and then frown when they stopped.  That was a first for me.

The driver of the red car got out and shouted at Brody as a brown sedan pulled up behind the disabled red car.  “Shit, man!  What the hell happened?  Where’d you come from?”  It was a kid from our school, Dan, known to his friends as Dan the Man.  He plays football with Brody and sells pot to anyone interested in buying, including - it was rumored - certain teachers.

“Dan?  What the … dude, you fucked my car all up!”  Brody started walking in his direction again, but Derek’s grip on his shirt held him back.